Abstract
Scientists have made efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ecosystem service valuation and mapping; yet little actual implementation of new ecosystem service knowledge has been delivered in practice. We explored this gap by developing a spatially explicit and semi-qualitative evaluation approach to clarify how the spatial patterns of new town developments impact three types of water-related regulating ecosystem services, namely water flow regulation, flooding mitigation, and water quality regulation. Based on peer-reviewed publications, we identified key indicators with spatial characteristics that practitioners care about and have control of. We investigated the case of Lingang, a satellite city of Shanghai in the Yangtze River Delta, and found that (1) 85.30% of the pre-urban East Lingang with native marshlands performed better holistically while 93.06% of the post-urban East Lingang using the man-made lakeside model performed poorly; (2) 82.47% of the double grids model at West Lingang performed poorly in pre-urban time, while some major waterways were improved by the Hydrological Planning; and (3) a major weakness in the planning process was the ignorance in conserving pre-urban ecological resources, preventing the provision of ecosystem services. Finally, four urban design principles of both large-scale land use considerations and finer-scale design implications were proposed.
Highlights
Environmental degradation as well as the loss of critical ecosystem services (ESs) have been seen as a result of the unparalleled urbanization in post-reform China
The spatial patterns of the pre-urban Lingang were dominated by a river and channel network and a large tract of native salt marsh bordering the East China Sea (Figure 4a)
Since most existing ecological and biological knowledge of ES mapping has focused on non-urban areas, we turned this focus into practical knowledge for new town development
Summary
Environmental degradation as well as the loss of critical ecosystem services (ESs) have been seen as a result of the unparalleled urbanization in post-reform China. One approach to achieve more sustainable urban development is through ‘design for eco-services’ [1], which means that ES performance should be considered initially when making planning and design [1]. ESs are the goods and services that people receive from natural ecosystems [2,3]. Planning and designing interventions can change the spatial patterns of a city or a region [7]. The ecological processes and functions provided in urban or regional ecosystems are likely to be altered. An understanding of how ES performance is impacted by urban developments is pivotal for practitioners in the task of maintaining or fostering essential ESs in cities
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